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Denis Shanagher

Denis Shanagher has been practicing law for 31 years, specializing in real estate, land use, insurance and general business litigation. He has been selected to the list of Northern California’s Super Lawyers for the past eight years. Currently, Denis is the office managing partner of the McKenna Long & Aldridge office in San Francisco, managing an office of 50 attorneys. MLA is a firm of about 700 attorneys with offices in New York, Washington D.C., Atlanta, Denver, Los Angeles, San Diego, Brussels, and several other locations around the world.

Denis has been around rugby his entire life as his father, Denis Shanagher Sr., was one of the original board members of the United States of America Rugby Football Union and a past president of the Pacific Coast Rugby Football Union for many years, as well one of the highest ranking referees in the country.

Denis played at Stanford (‘74–‘78) and then with the BATS (‘79–‘89). He was selected for the Pacific Coast Grizzlies from 1977–88, making tours with them to New Zealand and Argentina. He was also a member of the United States National Team from 1980 to 1987, earning 10 caps at center. He toured Australia, Japan and Wales with the Eagles and was called in as an injury replacement at the 1987 Rugby World Cup. Denis was also on the first Eagles Sevens team to play in Hong Kong in 1981 and went on to play in six Hong Kong Sevens Tournaments.

He is still involved in rugby as the Chairman of the Stanford Rugby Foundation. He is involved in community activities, including as a board member and past president of San Francisco Little League; as trustee of a local San Francisco private high school; and as a member of the board of a local homeowners’ association.Denis lives in San Francisco with his wife, Julie (Cal, 1981). His daughter, Katie, is a junior at Northwestern University while his son, Denis, will be a freshman at Vassar and is an outfielder on the baseball team (but sevens is in his future).